BSL Acquires 6 More Firmsn 16 Yards

Pelican Companies parent BSL Holdings, Dallas, Tx., has gone on a buying spree so far this suilrmer, snapping up independents from the Atlantic to the Rockies.

Among the acquisitions since June are seven-unit Paty Co., Piney Flats, Tn.; four-yard MBS Holdings, Arlington, Tx.; two-unit Kellogg Lumber, Denver, Co., and single-location Durham Manufacturing Co., Gallatin, Tn.; Bagnal Builders Supply, Columbia, S.C., and Holmes Lumber, Jacksonville. Fl.

Bagnal and Paty's yards-in Morristown. Elizabethton. Johnson City, Greeneville and Kingsport, Tn., and Bristol and Duffield, Va.-will become Pelican Building Centers.

Paty's three Big John's Closeouts units are not part of the deal.

Former Bagnal owner Tommy Bagnal has joined Pelican in sales, under general manager Mike Cabin, who transferred from Pelican's Memphis location.

MBS Holdings, which operates Mayfield Building Supply/Swain Building Materials locations in Arlington, Fate, Keller and Lewisville,

Tx., provides BSL with its first yards in Texas.

Kellogg's yards in Denver and Castle Rock, Co., are BSL s first in the West. Former majority owner Walter Kellogg is staying on with the firm.

Lowe's Buys Tulsa Site

Mill Creek Lumber Co., Tulsa, Ok., has sold a l5-acre site to Lowe's Cos., and will move its current facility to a newer location across town.

"I'm personally excited about the move," said Jim Dunn, Mill Creek's president. "We will trade an out-dated facility in an increasingly awkward location in an old section of Tulsa for a plant in the center of residential growth for the next 20 years." Dunn added the move should take about l8 months.

To make room for Lowe's, Mill Creek will move its subsidiary, Wood Systems Inc., from the site. A small mini-storage business will also be relocated behind the east side of Lowe's.

Mill Creek Lumber has been at its current location since its inception over 60 years ago.

Rrrurrns

Ace Hardware has sold its corporate-own ed North Bridges Ace Hardware, Alpharetta, Ga., to Tom and Lisa Utley, the chain's first franchisees ...

Churchman Building Center is moving to a new location in Newport, Ar. ...

McCoy's Building Supply Center is building a larger replacement store in Victoria, Tx., for an Oct. move

Scatty's opens a 4,100-sq. ft. store next month in Melbourne Beach, Fl.

Rocco Enterprises has sold Rocco Building Supplies, Winchester Coantenop and Interstate Countertop to the R.H. "Twig" Strickler group

Davis Lumber Co., Stuttgart, Ar., is more than tripling its iales floor to 35,000 sq. ft.

84 Lumber reopened its Manchester, Tn., yard as an 84+ store; Chris Hince, mgr. ...

Home Depot plans a spring opening for a new store near Sarasota, Fl.; got the go-ahead to build a new home center in Marietta Ga., so the existing store can be transformed into an Expo, is negotiating for property in Lakeland, Fl., and is considering a site in Waco, Tx. ... Rainforest Action Nework is back picketing at Home Depot after laying off for two weeks after a cnrde explosive device was found at a construction site for Depot's new Atlanta, Ga., Hq....

Lowe's Cos. opened a 150,000sq. ft. superstore in Leesburg, Fl. (David Emery and Tony Baker, mgrs.), replacing its Eustis, Fl., location ... the chain, which backed away from closing its Fort Pierce store due to public outcry is now looking for a site in the city to build a $13 million, l0l,@0-sq. ft. replacement store with 25,000sq. ft. garden center...

Lowe's opens a store next month in Asheville, N.C.; is building a replacement store in Monroe, N.C.; has broken ground in Houston, Tx.; will build a. 145,000-sq. ft. store on 17 acres in South Lakeland, Fl., and plans a 115,0@-sq. ft. store with 30,000sq. ft. garden center on 15 acres in Cumming, Ga., by year's end ...

Calloway's Nursery, Fort Worth, Tx., terminated plans to bay Wolfe Nurseries, San Antonio, Tx.

Wnom*rrnslft rru rrc?ur:rs

Rayonier agreed to buy the assets of Louisiana-Pacific's Eatonton, Ga., sawmill, with plans to upgrade the mill and install new small log equipment to up its capacity to 75 million M. ft.; the deal is expected to close in the third quarter, with the rebuild to take 6-9 months

Huttig Building Products has acquired I 3O-year-old Cherakee Lumber & Millwork Co., Maryville, Tn.

Champ ion Inte mat io nal intends to construct a sawmill near Cantonment, Fl.

Cameron Ashley has relocated its North Little Rock, Ar., DC to the former Fischer Lime & Cement facility; Bill Tomlinson, sales, and Billy Starks, branch mgr., succeeding Dan Tinker, now Misssissippi Valley district mgr. ...

Daughefi Resources, Lexington, Ky., is closing its hardwood dimension plant and selling its 8O7o stake in Red River Hard.woods, Clay City, Ky., to I{&^S Lumber Inc,Clay City

Louisiana-P ac ific and Bo is e Cascade are bidding for fellow OSB producer Le Groupe Forex, Montreal...

Cooper Industries, Houston, Tx., is consolidating all of its power tools and hand tool divisions into one global business unit, Caoper lools, Lexington, S.C. Cooper agreed to buy English security system maker JSB Electrical p/c for $61 million

Osmose, Inc. has acquired Protim Solignum, a U.K.-based supplier of low pressurelvacuum timber treatment products with operations in the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the FarEast...

Alpine Engineered Products, Inc., Pompano Beach, Fl., has begun distributing and specifying Simpson Strong-Tie products in its TrusCalc, VIEW and related software...

U.S. Plastic Lurnber Corp., Boca Raton, Fl., has purchased plastics recycler/producer Brigadoon Industries Inc., Acala, Fl. ..

Swnmit D imens ion, Chilhowie, Va., has been acquired by the owners of ,Sure-Wood Forest Products, Cincinnati, Oh., and renamed Sure-Wood Dimension; the firm produces S4S hardwood lumber and dries rough lumber ...

Southdown /nc., Houston, Tx., agreed to buy fellow cement maker Sunshine Materials Inc., Inverness, Ft.

Sheriff Lumber Co., Easley, S.C., is no longer in business ...

Crane Plastics Co. has spun off TknberTirh decking products into a separate company, TimberTech Ltd., headed by Stu Kemper as president ...

MJB Wood Gmup,Irving, Tx., added a DC in Saltillo, Mexico

M eyer International, Atlanta, Ga., has acquired RentX Industies,Denver, Co., with72 branches in 1l states

Anniversaries: Lumberrnen's Golf Association, Memphis, Tn., 80th ... Scotty's, Winter Haven, Fl., 75th ... Milwaukee Electric Tbols,7Sth...

New Web site: Temco Fireplace Products, Nashville, Tn., www.temcofireplaces.com

Housing starts in June (latest figs.) fell 6Vo to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.571 million ... single family starts slipped 97o, multifamily were at a rate of 267,000 for 5+ units and 30,000 for24 units ... prmits rcseZVoto a I.621million annual rate.